Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1887-04-23

with the aid Of their connecting railroads.
It may be said that this is natural re.
suit Of competition, and that the localities
which are favored by number Of compel.
ing roads have natural advantage over
the places nearer the consuming or shipping
polnV, which entities them to lower rates
of freight. This is acknowledged in the
inter. state law to the extent that it permits
as great a charge to be made for longer as
for shorter haul but the law undertakes
to deny 50 much advantage, to places
favored with competition, as will give
them lower freight rates for their greater
distance than are given to points nearer
the common destination.
The abstract justice of the provision
seems plain enough, and the strength of the
claim secured the enactment. The attempt
TO enforce it will show whether or no it is
really just, or whether the natural law of
competition should be left to work without
this restraint upon it. 1t may be that it
will be found that common carrier
should charge less for long than for a
shorter haul, and be required only to treat
alike each locality and each shipper in it.
It IL generally believed that there will need,
ct least, to be important exceptions made
to the universally Of the working of the
long and short haul clause the transconti-
mental railroads, whose through business is
great and local business comparatively
small, being especially damaged by the new
restriction.
The idea of the law was not to interfere
with natural competition and natural
advantages but to leave them free to bear
their fruit, and simply restrain rail.
road directors from debating their
prosperity or decreeing the ruin Of
people and places. The great evil which it
assailed, and which it has completely
stricken down, was that Of secret draw.
backs, by which favored party was
helped and his neighbor hurt. If the bill
does no more than this, it has lifted a
killing weight from business; and
the result will inevitably and very
soon be perceived in a period of bust
ness prosperity, which will be steady
and enduring. There is q good deal OF
smoke over the prospect now, but it seems
~ ~S W ASfuho AVeAo o0SoCity W oCo Iudt
1t will soon arise, and that business enter
terprises will be undertaken with great
vigor and zeal under the protection and
guarantee which the law now gives
to every enterprise, that it will
not be choked out by the arid breath of
railroad discrimination. Every man may
now 60 to work in selecting his location, in
\ reliance upon his judgment, and knowing
that all the conditions upon which he will
succeed Or fail are open, and to be seen il
his judgment Is good, and that no unnat
urAl conditions Of transportation will aris
70 slay him.
There will be places that will be hur
bat they will be places that have enjoye
arbitrary advantages that they had no righ
Il to. Railroad officers will no longer max
fortunes In secret partnership with thei
4 shippers. 1t II notable illustration of tn
working Of this law that In the Clearfiel
bltuminious coal region, where cars custo
!; msrily made angels visits to the sma
shippers, now everyone gets all the cal
b needs. President Roberts has been gla
70 b able to do this justice to the region
which heretofore he has found himself uu
abls to do. The parties behind the thron
! woge stronger than the throne itself; bu
~ law has made their Waterloo.